1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a system for negotiating capabilities between a printer and a target device (such as a paper-folding machine or a scanner) so as to determine a layout of print data printed by the printer and subsequently processed by the target device. In more detail, the invention is related to determining the layout of the print data based on compatible capabilities between the printing capabilities of the printer and the processing capabilities of the target device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printers such as ink jet printers and laser printers have become common in both business and industry. Typically, a user can configure a layout of print data output by such a printer according to the user's needs, for example through an interface to a driver for the printer or an interface to an application program that generates the print data.
In situations where the output of the printer is tailored for use as an input to a second and different target device, however, the target device might require that the layout be configured in accordance with the processing capabilities of the target device. For example, to calibrate a color printer, a series of differently-colored patches are printed onto a recording medium, and the recording medium is then scanned by a target color measuring device such as an XY table or a strip reader. The color measuring device measures color values for the color patches so as to perform color calibration. Typically, the color measuring device is capable of measuring color patches only if the patches are arranged in a layout that meets certain requirements. For example, the color patches might have to be separated by a specified minimum distance or recorded within specified margins on the recording medium. Thus, the target device (here, the color measuring device) constrains the layout of the printer's output.
Other examples of target devices that typically have processing capabilities that constrain layout include stamp readers, bar code readers, and automatic scoring, folding, stitching, binding, stamping and cutting devices. Additional examples exist.
In conventional systems, a user must manually configure the layout in accordance with the processing capabilities of the target device. This manual configuration is often difficult to .perform and prone to error, resulting in misformatted output from the printer that cannot be processed properly by the target device. In addition, a new layout must be configured for each new type of target device.